Range

“Numbers and counting are a constantly recurring motif in my work. This is a two-color silkscreen, based on the strategy of my 1973 “Range Drawings”, printed at Simca Press. Many of my prints are based on the opportunities that the specific print shop has to offer. I try both to exploit their strengths and at the same time subvert them. Simca was famous for their complex, multi-screen prints, like Jasper Johns’ “cross hatchings”. Which is why I decided to make a complex single-screen print. All the numbers were drawn on the screen at the same time. The red was printed first, with the black numbers blocked out. Then the sequence was reversed – black numbers printed, with the red numbers blocked out.”
—Mel Bochner